My luck!!!!

Disclaimer:  This “It’s Saturday” won’t change you from a gumshoe to guru!  This is not a tutorial in self-help.   If you expect a life changing event, I think you need to lower your expectations. But I will try to demystify your thinking (i.e. sorta kinda disambiguate your thinking)!  I will not sauté around the issues folks. Soooo if your are a bit squeamish, you might want to skip this “It’s Saturday”.  I don’t want any of you to face reality if you don’t want tooooo and I especially don’t want to hurt any of your feelings in any way.  Remember folks, I'm just a little ol' farm boy who grew up a mile and fourth south of Roseland, MN.

ItchieBitchie says--I’m a little leery of myself.  Realty gives me glimpses of me and who I am which makes me wonder about myself!  It gives me glimpses of my luck and how much of an anomaly it is sometimes.  Ya can’t beat good luck with a stick! Yabut CadillacJack says--Luck is luck and your good luck at some point will run out (i.e. luck evens out).  You can't be lucky for ever.  It doesn't work that way!  Oh shoots!  Sooo don't push your luck 'cause you will run out of luck at some point just at the point when you need it!  Bingo.

The answer is...! Joesixpack says--If you want to be lucky, you’ve got to go out and get lucky.  Ya gotta be a risk taker.  If you try 50 new things and 25 are successful, you have 25 new successful things.  If you only try 3 new things that you are certain that you will succeed at, probably you only have three successful things.  MissPerfect says—Yabut erv, I can’t handle the 25 tries that I fail at.  It hurts me way tooooo much.  But if you are happy, happy you are. I understand MissPerfect, but maybe that is why you will live in your little box!  Suggestion—Increase your odds by testing them on other folks before going full bore with them.  If they say they don’t sound soooo good, maybe you need to think about it more.  But, pick good folks to give you their opinions.  My Mom, Anna, said--erv, surround yourself with good folks (i.e. you guys).

WorldClassLarry says--Mindedness and also mindfulness sure make a person luckier. LuckieEddie says--Those two qualities surely will improve a guy’s mind. Ya put all that stuff together and it helps with a person’s development of clarity and peace.  Sometimes ol’ ervie needs a wake up call to understand this stuff.  How about you? A hard shot to the jaw (i.e. in humility) usually does it. I get humbled a lot.  Now that can change my luck big time.  Such is life.

Huzzah! We were invited to 5 kids’ high school graduation parties.  I had a relationship with each of them but each was a little different.  Two had everything pretty easy for them (i.e. it appears).  They are great kids and will do well.  No question.  The other 3, life wasn’t as easy for them (i.e. for different reasons). But each of them have had some success (i.e. sorta kinda fell in their lap success) which might propel them to a different level.  I am sooooo happy for their successes.  I’m not certain why their success happened to them (i.e. I really think some of it was luck or something—I would like to think I had a teensy weensy something to do with it but I really doubt it but ya never know now do ya).  I wish every kid could have some success.  Soooooo does confidence give you success or does success give you confidence?  I don’t know but I think they sleep together!  It will be very interesting to follow them in their lives.  I hope for all of them that the success they had will be a spring board for a great live.  Time will tell I guess.  Such is life.

I measure folks (i.e. especially athletes) not by their accolades when they were in high school or college but by what they went on to do with their lives.  Now that is success. If a high schooler had the most tackles, played first chair trumpet, had the fasted time running the hurdles, was in the top 10% of class academically, had the nicest clothes, etc is really ok but let’s see what they do with their life.  Every high school has students that have those accolades.  Some folks mature later and some have a strong motor and some just go to sleep and others just live in their past.  MojoPete says—Some folks can hit the “go” button and they just take off.  Others never hit the “go” button and just stay the same talking about how many tackles they made their senior year. 

 Make “my luck”!  A motorist, after being bogged down in a muddy road, paid a passing farmer five dollars to pull him out with his tractor. After he was back on dry ground he said to the farmer, "At those prices, I should think you would be pulling people out of the mud night and day." "Can't do it", replied the farmer. "At night I haul water for the hole."

“Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose." Wilma Rudolph Olympic gold-medalist sprinter  ~  I watch the NBA playoffs.  I heard an announcer say—The winners are usually the ones who can handle frustration the best.  That is what he said.  Yup, handle frustration the best.  Huh, interesting! “If you have a job without aggravations, you don't have a job.” ~Malcolm Forbes~

I lost sooo...!  I ran in Parkersburg's Run of Remembrance last Saturday (i.e. 5k).  I ran in the 60 to death age group.  My friend (i.e. he is easy to like) a.k.a. Secretariat won of course (i.e. you don't get the name Secretariat by not winning).  I got 3rd out of 4 guys (i.e. I beat the 4th by a couple of seconds at the wire).  The fourth guy was Jon Hungry.  I didn't think I was slow but I heard Jon Hungry stopped half way through the run at Todd's Neighborhood Grill and ate breakfast.  ANYWAY I got passed by an old, fat lady.  I think it was the same old, fat lady that passed my on RAGBRAI a few years ago.  But she was real nice about it--As she whizzed by she said--How ya doing honey!  Yabut I was the oldest person running at 69. Crazy! Such is life.

Maybe it’s more than my luck!  I read this while eating my oatmeal with a half a banana on it--Dr. Jeremiah says--A popular brand of automobile oil filters became famous for its marketing slogan, “You can pay me now or pay me later.” That is, you can pay a small amount now for an oil change or a large amount later to repair or rebuild the engine whose oil was not changed. Either way, you’re going to have to pay to own and operate your car. The Bible takes a similar view on the subject of humility: You can humble yourself now or have God humble you later. Either way, if you want to follow Christ, you will be humble.

I was running the other afternoon in our little town (i.e. I hit the “go’ button but there was no “go”!).  I passed a gal, who I know but not very well.  I have never seen her walking before.  Do you walk every day—I try to after work—good for you; keep it up—thank you erv for the encouragement.  I have no idea what that was all about.  There probably was more to it than I know (i.e. could refer to one of a million things).  Maybe I helped formulate her thinking.  Just maybe.  But I don’t know.  But then, I don’t know a lot.  It’s easier sometimes!!  As Onesmartfriend told me recently at breakfast—The older I get, it seems like the less I know!  Such is life. 

My luck; I don’t think sooooo! OneSmartPerson says--In today's business and professional world, we often hear companies talk about "best practices" that can distinguish them from their competitors. One definition of this term is "a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark...a 'best' practice can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered."  MissPerfect says--Soooo folks, mimic the good stuff that works and the good folks on this earth.  Why not? It would appear that your luck will improve!  I think so.  What do you think?

Change your luck! A friend told me that we sometimes try to make folks do things the way we want them to do it (i.e. the way we always did it and what feels good to us).  We like it and are comfortable with it but maybe others aren’t (e.g. such as the younger generation).  ItchieBitchie says—If folks won’t change, usually it’s the death of the company, school, church, etc.  Do we ever ask the folks what they want and adjust to them?  Business does this some (i.e. it’s all about the money folks).  They want to be in tune to what the customers’ wants.  You can do what you think they want or what you want, but if they don’t want it, it ain’t going to work.  I think there might be some religious traditions of some churches are this way (i.e. not the faith but the religious habits and traditions).  Really folks, are the religious practices all that important? Maybe some might have the idea—we are right and if folks want to come to our church, they have to do it our way; the way we have done for last 80 years (i.e. force it down their throats if they like it or not).  We are right and we know it! I think that is a monolithic attitude. But they might be right, dead right! Folks say--We are open to change. Da! In their dreams. They are maybe on the slow boat to China! But, I can understand older senor's feelings.  Yes I can.  They might feel they are only going to live a few more years and don't want any change.  They like it just as it is!  Bingo.

Memorial Day thought!  A WW II vet said--A lot of those guys didn't come back; I was lucky.  Things can change overnight, so you better enjoy the day.  

 My luck! JakeSmart says--I have really been working out to get in shape.  I work hard every day and night on the hedonic tread mill (i.e. I have done it for a zillion years—I’m good at it and it’s now a habit).  It’s a lot of hard work folks.  LuckieEddie says—The hedonic tread mill work out makes ya what to work out more and more and more; the more you have the more you want.  It’s a killer alright but folks love it!  It becomes an obsession a.k.a. the American way of life.  Mr.BigGuy says--There is no luck using the hedonic tread mill folks. EricTheArcher says--...only smart thing about JakeSmat is his smart mouth! JakeSmart is on the fasttrack to somewhere for sure. This is not dancing around the issue folks.  It probably gives me a smarmy attitude with some of you.  Such is life.

The world’s measuring stick for success is MONEY!  Oh ya!  GeorgeTheCrook says—You can obtain money by hard work, being entrepreneurial, inheriting it, marry it, taking it from someone else or a combination of them!  Bingo!

CrazyMarvin says—I listen to stillness!  MissPerfect says--How can anyone listen to stillness.  You can’t hear stillness, can you?  What is stillness anyway?  Joesixpack (i.e. while running on the hedonic tread mill) says—I have no idea what stillness is.  I never hear it! I think CrazyMarvin is crazy!  Who listens to stillness in the world we live in anyway.  I have toooo many mobile devices to have any stillness if there is such a thing.  Stillness, a crazy thought! I got to go to take another selfiie to make some noise on my social media posts! WorldClassLarry says—Stillness give us wisdom; a great source of peace! 

SusieQ says—Life can throw some sharp sliders at times.  Those suckers are soooo hard to hit.  It appears that some folks are better hitters than others (i.e. get luckier).  I really don’t know why sometimes.  My luck maybe!  Yabut it sure helps when you have Popeye forearms!  It also helps if you keep practicing hitting those sharp sliders.  ThePrizeTurnipHarold says--The more I practice and work at it the better I get.  It seems like I get luckier!  Such is life.

OneSmarGal informed me of a new concept that I never heard of before called “risk tolerance and risk capacity”.  We probably have heard of risk tolerance before (i.e. what your emotions can tolerate in your investments) but I have never heard of risk capacity.  Think about it, some folks have a lot of risk tolerance but do not have a very large risk capacity (i.e. they can’t afford to take those odds because of their situation).  That strategy will take some of the luck out of investing maybe.  The risk just ain’t worth the potential success (i.e. can't afford it).  Maybe we need to think more about what is best for us and our situation.  It surely is different for different folks.  Surely!

This is the church that I grew up in

Have a FUN day my friends unless you have other plans. (-:

erv

MyFriendJean says--The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is the way a man uses them.